Two technology companies eek to bring more speed andtransparencytopricing for group transportation booking. Both Buster and
Shofur have been growing their
network of bus companies and
other group transportation suppliers and collecting data to hone
price-quoting capabilities.

Obtaining and comparing pricing for group ground transportation can be time consuming
for event planners, as Shofur
founder and CEO Armir Harris
found when working for a
family transportation business
and attempting to procure 60
buses for a client during the 2012
Democratic National Convention
in Charlotte. “We had trouble finding 60 buses, so we aggregated
them from surrounding states,
but the process was very inefficient and broken,” Harris said. “It
can take anywhere between seven
hours and three days just to get a
quote.” The Shofur platform has
more than 1,000 bus providers
from which event planners can
get a quote, either by submitting
a form online or calling a 24-hour
reservation line. From there, they
can get immediate pricing based
on mileage needed and type and
location of vehicle, he said.

Shofur requires its suppliersto have a good safety record fromthe Department of Transportationand to have buses that are morerecent than 2004, Harris said.

Buster has compiled a database of 600 vetted vendors to
create an “Expedia for group
ground transportation.” Planners
enter the date, destination and
number of passengers to get
immediate quotes, CEO Harald
Kruse said. The database includes each supplier’s dynamic
pricing variables, so the platform
offers live pricing that is firm
other than parking fees, cleaning
fees, overtime charges and other
incidentals, he said.

In addition to DOT safety
records, Buster also requires suppliers to have insurance coverage
of about $5 million for larger vehicles and does not allow suppliers to
farm out bookings to other suppliers should they no longer be able
to complete a trip. “If they cannot
take a trip because the driver’s sick
or they got overbooked, it will be
submitted back in the system and
we will find a vendor we know and
have contracted with,” Kruse said.

Both companies target corporate
business. Shofur counts several
Fortune 500 companies among its
clientele and is setting up contracts
to handle some corporate transportation needs, such as campus
employee shuttles, Harris said.

It also provides service for travelmanagement companies.

Buster also is gaining traction
with the TMC community, Kruse
said, and is reviewing application
programming interfaces to integrate into corporate booking tools.

While ground transportation
management has moved more to
the forefront of corporate policies
in recent years, particularly with
the rise of ride-hailing apps like
Uber and Lyft, group ground transportation remains largely unmanaged, Kruse said. Simplified bookings and pricing could prompt
buyers to reconsider how they
move travelers for certain purposes, he said. “I’ve asked [corpora-tions] how much [they] are booking in coach buses, and nobody
can give me a straight answer,”
Kruse said. “People are tracking
car services and how much they
are spending on Uber and Lyft,
so there’s the question of whether
they could be more efficient with
transportation by offering more
buses and larger vehicles.”

In the meantime, both companies are growing their footprints.
Shofur has expanded beyond
the U.S. into Canada and is looking at Australia, the U.K. and
other parts of Europe, Harris said.
Buster’s plans are largely domestic
at this point, though Kruse said it
is looking at Canada and already
has fulfilled some trips there via
its current network.

“People are
tracking
car services
and how
much they
are spending on Uber
and Lyft, so
there’s the
question of
whether they
could be
more efficient
with transportation by
offering more
buses and
larger vehicles.”